Remedies — False Claims Act

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U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Remedies — False Claims Act

Where a relator could not show that the government employees who wrote grant applications knew that the City was implementing a program different from the affirmative action plan, summary judgment was properly granted to the city on the relator’s qui tam action.

“Doubtless the people who submitted the grant applications knew that bureaucracies tend to develop their own folkways. Job descriptions don’t match what employees do in fact. Organization charts show a hierarchy that does not reflect who actually reports to whom, who has final authority to sign off on a project, or which supervisor handles what tasks. A plan may show that four levels of the staff (an original decision plus three levels of review) process equal employment complaints, while only two levels of review are used in practice. Departing from the formal documents in order to get things done more quickly or accurately is common, and some flexibility is essential when administrators encounter circumstances that plan-writers did not anticipate. Chicago has a huge bureaucracy; what works in one bureau may not work in another, and slavishly following a single plan could be counterproductive. Unions that call on members to ‘work to rule’ as an alternative to a strike know that nothing cripples a bureaucracy faster than handling everything by the book. No one who stands in line for service at a public agency, or waits impatiently for an agency to resolve a grievance or issue a license, wants every written procedure to be followed.

Practical accommodations are a relief.”

Affirmed.

14-1317 Hill v. City of Chicago

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Pallmeyer, J., Easterbrook, J.

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